Chesterfield man with Asperger’s syndrome gets three years in sexual assault case

A Chesterfield County man diagnosed with a form of autism has been sentenced to a three-year jail term for two sexual assault convictions stemming from a 2012 incident.

Drew Harrison, 30, was convicted of forcible sodomy and object sexual penetration on Jan. 22, 2014, for an incident involving a former girlfriend. Later that year, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison with 47 years suspended.

Harrison appealed, but the Virginia Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s ruling, concluding: “She told him both by her words and physical resistance that she did not want him to do what he was doing to her.”

The Virginia Supreme Court did not take up an appeal of that decision and last Thursday, Chesterfield County Circuit Judge Steven C. McCallum imposed the sentence.